


the one where julie tries to explain

by hi_hello_hey_there



Series: you don't have to say i love you (to say i love you) [11]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Explanations, Gen, Hospitals, Nick's Parents are Chad Danforth and Ryan Evans, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27927787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hi_hello_hey_there/pseuds/hi_hello_hey_there
Summary: "Sit down, I'll get it."
Relationships: Julie Molina & Nick
Series: you don't have to say i love you (to say i love you) [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1942267
Comments: 10
Kudos: 102





	the one where julie tries to explain

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta'd so let me know if there's any mistakes!

The hospital is not exactly Julie’s favorite place in the world. Between all the time she spent here when her mom was really sick, the fluorescent lights that expose everything she wishes she didn’t have to see, and the sickening antiseptic smell that permeates everything, it’s nothing short of a miracle that she willingly walks into one.  _ Nick deserves an explanation _ is what she tells herself on the elevator ride to the floor he’s staying on.

She crutches her way down the hall once she gets off, using the signs on the wall to guide her in the right direction. Carrie had told her that Nick was finally allowed out of bed and could walk around his room a little with the help of a walker and under direct supervision. She passes a nurse on her way out of the room Carrie told her Nick was in and gives her a tight-lipped smile as she goes.

Just inside the door, Nick is sitting on the edge of the bed, scooting off with the assistance of his Dad. She hears him say, “You’re doing great, sweetheart,” before he guides him to the window seat, trailing along behind him with a wheeling IV pole. She gives a quick knock to let them know she’s here. Both of them look to her, a kind grin on their faces. “Come on in, Julie.” She pushes the door open wide enough so she can pass through with her crutches. “How are you today?”

“I’m doing okay, Mr. Danforth-Evans.” She lets a small smile pass over her face. “Not as much pain today.”

“Well, that’s good,” he remarks, a genuine tone filling his voice. He turns to Nick and says, “I’m gonna go find Poppa and let him know Julie’s here. I have to go get Becca from dance class but we’ll be back in time for dinner, okay?”

“Okay, Dad,” Nick answers. His dad drops a kiss on his forehead before gathering his jacket from the bed and patting Julie’s arm on the way out. “Hey.”

“Hi, Nick.” Julie takes the other cushion in the window bench and looks down to the bustling street below. “What’s new with you?” she asks after a while.

He lets a small sarcastic huff out of his nose, a lightly exasperated smirk lining his lips. “Same shit, just a different day.” It startles a chuckle out of her, having never heard anything remotely close to a swear word come out of his mouth. “I know you don’t like hospitals so I appreciate this. I love Carrie, I do, but I can only take so much of her trying to make amends while I’m hopped up on morphine.” Julie doesn’t miss the scratchy rasp in his voice, eyes falling unintentionally to the angry, raised remnants of Caleb’s seals on the sides of his neck, but she didn’t realize how funny Nick could be and she hasn’t had a good belly laugh in so long.

She lets the moment settle over them before addressing one of the reasons she came today: “You probably have some questions and I’m going to do my best to answer them.”

“Questions, yeah.” He looks down to his hands in his lap, his fingers fiddling with the hem of the hospital gown. “Why-” and he pauses, like he can’t find the words to say.

“Take your time.” Julie rests her hand on his knee, rubbing it in little circles over the sweats he’s wearing. His hands still and he takes a deep breath.

“Why did this happen?”

Isn’t that the million dollar question. Julie hopes he doesn’t notice the way she fumbles to begin her answer, really unsure herself about why any of this went down. “There’s a lot of backstory to that, but to make things simple, the ghost who… possessed you was a really powerful person and he wasn’t used to being denied what he wanted.”

“And your band,” he says, looking her in the eye. “They’re... ghosts too? That’s who he wanted?”

“Yeah.” The word comes out on an exhale without her permission. “They all died in 1995 and through some really weird acts of fate, they ended up in my path right when I needed them. Caleb was scared that I could see them, the powers they have, and he tried to get them under his control, but these boys couldn’t be controlled even if they wanted it.” A fond chuckle escapes her and Nick studies her face.

“You love them.” This one isn’t a question but Julie nods anyway. “I’m glad you have them, then. You deserve it.”

“They’d be happy to meet you. I don’t know if you’d be able to see them or not, but we’ve found ways for them to interact with people.”

“That sounds nice.” His eyes drift back to the world outside and Julie, seeing a rift growing between his eyebrows, squeezes his knee once more.

“What is it?” She watches him, the veins that move as he clenches his jaw, how his hand tightens into a fist, the stutter of his breath. “You can tell me anything.”

He doesn’t stop looking out the window when he answers. “I remember everything.” And, oh, that’s… Julie can’t even think of the words to describe how devastating that must be. “I have some memories of his, too. Stuff about his past and the awful things he’s done. It keeps me up at night that for almost two months I wasn’t in control of my own body. He ran me ragged, but what’s worse is that I couldn’t stop him. He was just so horrible to everyone, you included. My dads, they’re trying to comprehend what exactly happened, and Becca knows something was up but she’s just too young to understand. She looks at me with this... this  _ caution  _ all over her face, like she doesn’t trust me anymore. Like I’m not the same brother she’s always had. I can’t exactly blame her.”

Julie gets closer and disentangles his hand from his robe, holding it in both of her own, hoping that the pressure might ease the weird rhythm of breathing he’s fallen into. “Nothing that terrible piece of crap did to you is your fault. And you did stop him in the end. You were just trying to survive.”

“Yeah, but-” He’s interrupted by a coughing fit, racking his whole body. He sucks in a ragged breath, reaching for his walker and trying to stand up.

Her eyes fall on a pitcher of water sitting by a vase of flowers on the nightstand next to his bed. **“Sit down, I’ll get it.”** She rises from her spot at the window, forgoing her crutches, and hopping on one leg over to the table. She’s getting pretty good at getting around on her own, already sick of the constant presence of cold metal under her arms. She pours water into the pitcher, Nick’s coughing spurring her to move as fast as possible, before she turns around and shuffles back to her seat.

The cup pressed in his hand, she helps lift it to his mouth and he takes a greedy gulp before his breathing gets back to normal. He downs the cup and sets it on the windowsill. “I want that to be the first thing that goes away,” he says with a harsh exhale, voice still recovering from the coughs.

Julie laughs a little. “Oh? Not the inability to walk? Cause let me tell you, I can deal with the broken rib, but not being able to stand for long periods of time is kind of the worst.”

It makes Nick laugh and that’s what she was aiming for, making her chuckle along. “Yeah. I’d like to be able to breathe without my lungs revolting.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” The laughter dies down between them and silence is left. Well, not total silence. There’s the hustle of the hospital outside his room and the steady heart monitor and, if she listens close enough, the incremental  _ drip drip drip _ of the IV.

He’s the first to break the comfortable quiet. “Thanks, Molina. I really needed someone to talk to who wouldn’t think I’m bat shit crazy.”

A friendly grin grows on her face. “Any time, Nick. I haven’t been sleeping too well as of late, so I really mean any time.” He seems to miss the weight behind her words, the reason for her lack of sleep, as his eyes crinkle mischievously at the corners at her statement.

They stop speaking for a moment until Nick says, “Put on some music until my dads get back. We can just sit and listen.”

“Sounds like a plan, captain,” she responds, giving a mock salute and a cheeky grin as she pulls out her phone, shuffling a carefully curated playlist full of her favorite artists. The two watch as the sun slips over the horizon, the sky giving way to twilight blues and purples as Bleachers and Phoebe Ryan and The Mowgli’s filter from the tinny phone speakers. They play a few rounds of rock paper scissors, dissolving into thinly veiled attempts at winning with outrageous hand signals like lizard or alien.

A giggling mess is what Nick’s dads and little sister find when they come back to the room. There’s a fond smile on his Poppa’s face when he asks, “Would you like to stay for dinner, Julie? There’s plenty to go around.” He brandishes a foil-wrapped glass pan, likely food made for them by some relative or friend looking to relieve them of a burden.

“Yeah, Julie! Please stay!” Becca bounces around, yanking on her Dad’s hand as she does so.

A laugh bubbles out of her throat when she responds, “Okay.” She shakes her phone. “Let me just tell my aunt she doesn’t need to pick me up yet.” Nick’s dads set to work laying out the mini-feast that’s been prepared, unwrapping various other containers pulled from a bag his Dad had been carrying as she shoots off a text to her  _ tía  _ telling her what’s happening.

Becca passes her a paper plate before climbing onto the bench between her and Nick and holding it out for her Poppa to put a piece of chicken on. The rest of the night passes in a blur and Julie is caught up between the strange feeling of unease the hospital has always given her and the absolute joy and comfort the Danforth-Evans are bringing to this room as they joke and converse over dinner. So maybe the hospital isn’t her favorite, not by a long shot, but it’s not so bad in the end.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm finally free of finals so I'll have some extra free time to work ahead on writing until next semester starts. I think it's high time my boy Nick gets his moment. We'll definitely be seeing more of unpossessed him in the future. As always, requests from [this list](https://p0ck3tf0x.tumblr.com/post/98502010026/one-hundred-ways-to-say-i-love-you) are open except for 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 21, 26, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41, 44, 48, 49, 50, 53, 57, 62, 63, 64, 65, 67, 70, 82, 83, 86, 91, 98, and 99. You can drop a comment here or send me a message on tumblr. Thanks for reading my lovelies. Have a nice week!
> 
> main: [hi-hello-hey-there](https://hi-hello-hey-there.tumblr.com/)  
> side: [toziers-token](https://toziers-token.tumblr.com/)
> 
> love, blue


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